Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room

Cohen & Cohen

The Elephant in the Room Written by WILLIAM MOTLEY

COHEN & COHEN PO BOX 366 REIGATE RH2 2BB Tel:+44 (0) 1737 242180 Fax: +44 (0) 1737 226236 Email: info@cohenandcohen.co.uk Website: www.cohenandcohen.co.uk Gallery at: 1 Essex Court, 30 St James’s Place, London SW1A 1NR

By Appointment Only

© Cohen & Cohen 2019 Published October 2019 Published by Cohen & Cohen Photographs by Dairy Digital Imaging Printed and bound by Albe De Coker, Antwerp With thanks to: Graeme Bowpitt, Tom Maes, Geert Bogaert, Alice Williamson, David and Nong Priestley, Polly Latham

FOREWORD Many years ago at a London auction I bid on a pair of 18th century export porcelain elephants. Although 19th century examples are common I had not previously seen an 18th century pair and I was determined to buy them. As the bidding started to rise above expectations I felt a firm hand on my bidding arm and a quiet voice in my ear said “Enough”. Ewa had spoken and the elephants were knocked down to another dealer.

Months later my misery was compounded when, after substantial restoration, the elephants were sold on to another dealer at several times their hammer price.

Since that time we had not encountered another pair until we acquired the pair that appear in this catalogue and which are largely responsible for its publication.

The elephant in the room? That this is probably our final catalogue. I say probably because last year’s catalogue was intended to be our last but it is difficult to find interesting pieces and not to catalogue them.

Interesting pieces this year include a Hong Bowl with a “ghost” flag, a bowl commemorating a famous naval battle, a pair of massive famille rose vases with exceptional knops, a Ming dynasty dish with a message from the past and a pen box with an unrecorded design.

Our love affair with eggshell porcelain continues and having twice sold complete parrot garnitures without having time to record them we were delighted to re-acquire one and finally photograph and record it.

The remainder of the catalogue is made up of rare figures and unusual shapes. As usual Ewa and I have agonised over the acquisition of every piece in the catalogue and the final edit is a joint enterprise.

Will continues to amaze us with the depth and scope of his research and his ability to add new information to the body of knowledge on export art on a continuous basis.

Michael & Ewa Cohen

1 Ewer & Cover Kangxgi period circa 1720 Dutch Market Height: 51⁄4 inches; 13.5cm A Chinese export porcelain condiment jug and cover of unusual form with elaborate rim and serpentine handle, decorated with lotus, antiques and Daoist precious objects, in the Chinese Imari palette of underglaze blue, overglaze iron red and gold.

This sweet little jug is a rare form, with the raised rim imitating a Tibetan monk’s cap. The form is known as sengmaohu as it resembles the profile of hats worn by Tibetan monks. The shape was originally made in metal but was then copied in porcelain from the Yuan period onwards, notably in the reign of the Ming Emperor Yongle who restored diplomatic relations with Tibet in 1412.

Most Chinese examples of this shape are decorated with lotus and Daoist precious objects, as here though this example also has other objects added.

Notable examples of this form: Shoudu bowuguan (Capital Museum) in Beijing, qingbai-glazed ewer excavated in 1965 from a Yuan tomb in the Haiding district, Beijing.

British Museum (No 1952,0512.1), Yongle period (1403-1424) Jingdezhen Ceramics Archaeology Institute has several examples unearthed in Zhushan in 1983, white glazed and copper-red glazed examples from the Yongle period and a blue and white example from the Xuande period, all exhibited in 2014.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (EA1978.2073) copper-red glazed, dated to 1700-1720; but with apocryphal Xuande mark; Metropolitan Museum No 29.100.314 an example decorated in underglaze copper red, Qianlong mark and period References: Harrison-Hall 2001, No 3:2; Vickers, Michael, Oliver

Impey, and James Allan (1986) From Silver to Ceramic: The Potter's Debt

to Metalwork in the Graeco-Roman, Oriental and Islamic Worlds (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1986), pl. 60.

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Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) If anyone wants to know what elephants are like, they are like people only more so.

Peter Corneille (1606-84) I may not have lost all my marbles yet but there is a small hole in the bag somewhere.

Anon.

2 Longevity Dish Ming Dynasty, Wanli period dated February/March 1594 Chinese Market Diameter: 113⁄4 inches; 30cm A Chinese porcelain large saucer dish, decorated in underglaze blue with peony and phoenixes, the underside with an inscription in the well of the foot rim.

The translation of the inscription indicates that this extremely rare dish was made for a lady of Shicheng. At least two places in Eastern China could be this Shicheng. Shicheng County is in Jaingxi Province but has no Fangguo district. Or it could be the City of Shicheng, Zhejiang, which is now under Qiandao Lake, created in 1959 for the Xin’an River Dam project. This latter city was built during the Han dynasty and had several elaborate gates.

There is little precedent for a privately made, documentary dish like this. The porcelain and its decoration are fairly standard for the period but the inscription is a remarkable survival.

石城縣坊郭里熊門 陳氏 石中里白茅塘陳玉爵公之女也配 汝行公 生子三長曰墀儀賓 次曰兆楨 墰生幼曰兆泰令史 壽盤萬年不替耳 大明萬曆二十二年四月吉日 御器 厰造 Translation: "For Mrs Chen, of Xiong Gate, Fangguo district, Shicheng county, the daughter of Mr Chen Yujue of Baimao Pool, Shizhong district, who married Mr Ru Xing, and who has three sons, the eldest of whom, named Chi, married into the Imperial Household, the second of whom, named Zhaozhen, became a Daoist monk, and the third of whom, named Zhaotai became an official, the Manufactory of Objects for the Imperial Court has made, on an auspicious day of the fourth month of the twenty-second year of the Wanli reign of the Great Ming, this Longevity Dish, to last for ten thousand years without decline."

When your children are teenagers it is important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.

Nora Ephron in I Feel Bad About My Neck (2006)

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recent underwater photograph of a building close to one the gates on Shicheng City, now submerged uner Lake Qiandao [Photo: Chinese National Geography]

3 Eggshell Plate Yongzheng period circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 81⁄4 inches; 21cm Provenance: collection of James A Garland; collection of John Pierpont Morgan.

A Chinese eggshell porcelain dish finely painted in famille rose enamels with a Chinese domestic scene of a lady and two boys, the rim with reserves of flowers and dragon roundels on a pink diaper ground.

The Garland collection was a substantial group of Chinese porcelains that had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in New York from 1895, described in Connoisseur Magazine as “the finest collection of old Chinese porcelain in the world”. When James Garland died in 1902 the collection was sold as one lot to the Duveen brothers and within a few hours further sold to John Pierpont Morgan.

References: Michael St Clair (2016) The Great Chinese Art Transfer: How

So Much of China’s Art Came to America, Farleigh Dickinson University Press (2016), p167-8; Santos & Allen 2005, No 55, a dish with the same central scene but a different border formerly in the collection of Dr Anton CR Dreesmann; Williamson 1970, plate XXXIII, an almost identical example.

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life.

All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always - do not forget this, Winston - always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler.

Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

George Orwell, 1984

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Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.

Aldous Huxley author of A Brave New World , in a letter to George Orwell after reading 1984, (Huxley was Orwell’s French teacher at Eton in 1917)

4 Eggshell Porcelain Plate Yongzheng period circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 81⁄4 inches; 21cm A Chinese eggshell porcelain rubyback dish, painted with a Chinese landscape in bright famille rose, the rim with flowers and fruit, the reverse with a deep ruby enamel ground.

A very finely painted example of this rare type with an evocative Chinese landscape with a combination of a river, men in a boat, pine trees and mountains, a scheme used widely on Chinese ceramics especially during the 17th century.

The Wind Across the River The young poet Su Dongpo (10361101) was an enthusiastic student of Buddhist teachings and lived across the river from his admired Zen Master Foyin.

One day Su Dongpo wrote a poem: I bow my head to the heaven within heaven Hairline rays illuminating the universe The eight winds cannot move me Sitting still upon the purple golden lotus The eight winds refer to the forces driving the hearts of men: praise, ridicule, honour, disgrace, gain, loss, pleasure and misery. The poem declares the poet raised to such a high state that these ‘winds’ no longer affect him. Immensely proud of his poem he sent the manuscript to Foyin, who read it carefully and wrote one word on it: 放屁 (fart) and sent it back.

Furiously Su Dongpo set out across the river to challenge the old monk for this insult. When he arrived at Foyin’s home he found the master gone and a note pinned to the door: The eight winds cannot move me One fart blows me across the river Su Dongpo was deflated and realised that he had been taught a great lesson; he became a man of great humility.

5 Eggshell Porcelain Plate Yongzheng period circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 81⁄4 inches; 21cm A Chinese eggshell porcelain ruby back dish finely painted in famille rose enamels with three quail beside rockwork, chrysanthemum and peony, the rim with panels of flowers reserved on a pink diaper ground, the reverse with a deep ruby enamel ground.

The birds shown here are the Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix L 1758) which are widespread accros Europe and Central Aisa. They are also widely domesticated and bred for eggs and meat. They have been used for fighting in China and are sometime thus associated with gambling.

They are very fierce little birds, often symbolising courage, and ironically their Chinese name (an chún) includes ‘an’ which is a pun for peace.

Associated here with Chrysanthemum they may imply longevity and many generations living in harmony.

In the shijing or The Book of Odes, supposedly compiled by Confucius, it was thought that the quail turned into a field mouse during winter before reappearing as a quail in the spring. The Common Quail, unusually for a game bird, is strongly migratorial!

The quail, to guard his mate when danger 's near, Will boldly face the foe and show no fear The magpie, too, will fight, and do her best To save her young ones and protect her nest.

If man or woman be all dissolute, Let me prefer to them the bird or brute I will not call them brothers, when they fail To show the virtue owned by pie or quail. from Shijing Book IV, No 5, The Quail and The Magpie (tr. CFR Allen, 1893) References: Williamson 1970, plate XXXI, anpther example identical to this one.

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Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

HL Mencken

Blackadder: Your brain is so minute Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn’t be enough to cover a small water biscuit.

Blackadder: Give the likes of Baldrick the vote and we’ll be back to cavorting druids, death by stoning and dung for dinner.

6 Eggshell Porcelain Plate Yongzheng period circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 81⁄4 inches; 21cm A Chinese eggshell porcelain ruby back dish finely painted in famille rose enamels with three quail beside rockwork, chrysanthemum and peony, the rim with panels of flowers reserved on a pink diaper ground, the reverse with a deep ruby enamel ground.

En suite with the previous item.

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The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion...

When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits - despotic in his ordinary demeanour - known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty - when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity - to join in the cry of danger to liberty - to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion - to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day - It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 18 August 1792 Objection XIV from Objections and Answers Respecting the Administration

7 Teacaddy & Cover Yongzheng period circa 1730 European Market Diameter: 81⁄4 inches; 21cm Provenance: Leo & Doris Hodroff Collection No 5026; W Martin Hurst Collection, no. 571; Jacob Gieling Collection No 1702.

Exhibited: Dorchester Hotel, London, 28 May - 18 June 1931, No 384.

A Chinese porcelain teacaddy and cover, finely painted in famille rose enamels with panels of peony and finger citron surrounded by borders of cell diaper, Y-diaper and trellis diaper.

This delightful and extremely fine example is at the pinnacle of Yongzheng period enamelling. It was in the collection of William Martin-Hurst, whose collection formed the basis for George Williamson’s seminal work The Book of Famille Rose. Additionally it was in the collection of Leo and Doris Hodroff, which formed the basis of David Howard’s book The Choice of the Private Trader.

Every time we looked around There he was, that hairy hound From Budapest.

Never leaving us alone, Never have I ever known A ruder pest Alan J Lerner, My Fair Lady

References: Williamson 1970, plate I, this teacaddy is illustrated;

I see that you have made three spelling mistakes.

Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras (1744-90) after reading his death sentence

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8 Pair of Loving Cups & Covers Yongzheng period circa 1735 European Market Height: 71â „4 inches; 18.5cm A pair of Chinese export porcelain loving cups and covers brightly painted in famille rose enamels with mandarin ducks and lotus.

Mandarin ducks are symbols of marital ďŹ delity and lotus symbolises harmony and the growth of light out of darkness (the blooms emerge from mud) with the seed pods representing fertility.

So together these create a message for a long and happy marriage blessed with many sons.

9 Box & Cover Yongzheng/Qianlong period circa 1735-40 European or Chinese Market Diameter: 103⁄4 inches; 27.5cm A Chinese porcelain octagonal box and cover of flattened form on a flared foot, brightly painted in famille rose enamels with flowers and butterflies, the rim with a border of gilt scrolling lotus on an iron red ground, the side rim and foot rim with cell diaper, the interior also painted with flowers and butterflies.

This rare box is very finely painted and of a type that would have appealed to both the export market and the Chinese domestic market.

There are only 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that don’t.

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10 Pair of Vases & Covers Qianlong period circa 1740-45 European Market Height of vases: 35 inches; 90cm A fine pair of Chinese export porcelain large vases decorated in famille rose with birds and flowers, the covers with unusual knops moulded as large lotus blooms; on slightly later European gilt wood stands.

These fine vases have enamel painting of the highest quality and density of decoration. The knops are very striking as lotus blooms and this type seems to be especially rare with only a few examples known, including a soldier vase at Polesden Lacey (National Trust) and a vase in the Swedish Royal Collection at Drottningholme.

The birds are very well painted and closely follow real species found in China in the 18th century.

The Green Peafowl shown here (Pavo muticus, L. 1766) is an Asian species, distinct from the Blue Indian Peafowl (P. cristatus) more commonly known. It was once widespread across China but is now a declining population of less that five thousand mainly in Java and Southern China.

There is also a pair of shoudainiao or Paradise Flycatchers (Terpsiphone paradisi, L. 1758) and a pair of Manchurian Cranes (Grus japonensis, MĂźller 1776). The two flying birds are Pale-bellied Mynas (Acridotheres cinereus, Bonaparte 1851); various Myna species were popular as caged birds in China in the eighteenth century.

Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus, L. 1766)

Manchurian Crane (Grus japonensis, MĂźller 1776)

Pale-bellied Myna (Acridotheres cinereus, Bonaparte 1851)

26 Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi, L. 1758)

11 Winecooler Qianlong period circa 1740 Portuguese Market Height: 81â „4 inches; 21cm Provenance: the Collection of Leo & Doris Hodroff; with Cohen & Cohen 2001 A rare Chinese porcelain winecooler of thistle shape with everted rim flanked by bearded mask handles, on a raised flared foot, decorated all round with bright famille rose strapwork and arabesques.

This appears to be the only example of this form recorded in Chinese export porcelain. It belongs to a small group of similar porcelains with the same decoration and elaborate shapes, probably modelled after silver, and having the same mask handles. The decoration is inspired by porcelain from the Vezzi factory.

A tureen cover and stand in the Medeiros e Almeida collection Lisbon has these handles, as does a small footed ecuelle. A service for the Bishop of Oporto, D. Jose Ribeiro da Fonseca Figuereda e Sousa has very similar designs. A pair of tazze and a coffee service also relate to this group (see the next item in this catalogue).

References: Buerdeley, Michel (1962), p83, tureen, cover and stand in similar decoration; Castro, N (1988), p87, three services with the arms of the Bishop of Oporto; Le Corbeiller, Clare (1973) a general discussion of these pieces; Cohen & Cohen 2001, p14-15 Nos 9, a pair of tazze with similar decoration, and No 10 this winecooler.

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Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect Jonathan Swift The Examiner, November 1710

12 Wine Ewer & Cover Qianlong period circa 1740 Italian, Portuguese or Spanish Market Height: 9Âź inches; 25cm A rare Chinese export wine ewer or coffee pot with slender serpentine spout and elaborate scroll handle, brightly enamelled primarily in yellow, blue, iron-red and shades of green, with touches of pink, with large stylised flower heads, strapwork, arabesques and acanthus leaves, the ogee domed cover similarly decorated below the bud finial.

The style and enamelling of this extremely rare piece are copied from the ceramics of the Italian Vezzi factory. The colouring and bold designs are distinctive and known on only a few services from this date, mainly for the Iberian market, some being known with Portuguese arms.

The Vezzi factory was set up in Venice in 1720 by the goldsmiths Franceso and Guiseppe Vezzi, enterprising businessmen and early practioners of the art of industrial espionage.

Francesco had visited Vienna in 1719 and very likely made contact with Christophe Conrad Hunger an assistant in the Viennese porcelain workshops of Claude du Paquier. In 1721 Hunger moved to Venice and assisted the Vezzi brothers with their enterprise, using kaolin smuggled from Aue in Germany.

The Vezzi production of porcelain only lasted until 1727, with less than two hundred pieces surviving, mostly teapots, many with chinoiserie designs. As well as techniques for the manufacture of hard-paste porcelain Hunger’s defection also meant that the decorative style of Vezzi porcelains (and also this piece) was strongly influenced by the patterns of Du Paquier. They also appear to be influenced by the strap work designs of Jean Berain and the post-renaissance decorative friezes found on much Venetian furniture and frescoes.

The elaborate shape is taken from silver coffee services of the time and a few other pieces, probably from the same coffee service, are also known, including a teacaddy and wine cups.

References: Buerdeley 1962, p83, tureen, cover and stand in similar decoration; Castro 1988, p87, three services with the arms of the Bishop of Oporto; Le Corbeiller 1973, a general discussion of these

pieces; Cohen & Cohen 2001, p14-15 Nos 9, a pair of tazze with similar decoration, and No 10 a footed winecooler with almost identical decoration (see previous item in this catalogue).

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In olden days, a glimpse of stocking Was looked on as something shocking.

But now, God knows, Anything goes.

The world has gone mad today And good's bad today, And black's white today, And day's night today, And that gent today You gave a cent today Once had several chateaux.

Cole Porter

13 Penbox & Cover (Qalamdan) Qianlong period circa 1740 English or Dutch Market Dimensions: 6 x 11⁄2 x 13⁄4 inches; 15 x 4 x 4.5 cm A rare Chinese porcelain penbox and cover painted en grisaille to the lid with a ship at sea, the side and base with famille rose flowers scattered on a grisaille cell diaper, the interior of the lid with a Chinese river scene in polychrome; European silver mounts.

This is a previously unrecorded example of this rare shape, known as a qalamdan, a style of elongated Persian box intended to hold small tools associated with writing. Only a handful of examples in Chinese export porcelain are recorded.

The grisaille scene is unusual and previously unrecorded on Chinese export porcelain.

The source print has not been found, though it is possibly from a book of emblemata, perhaps a frontispiece to such a book (see right for three examples).

Emblem books were very popular from the fifteenth century onwards and many of them feature ships at sea sailing on rough waters, and this image would also have appealed to a European travelling to Canton, who probably ordered this as a private commission for himself or a colleague.

References: Cohen & Cohen 2013, No 51, a similar penbox with

mughal subject and the interior with a scene, La Belle Villageoise after Boucher.

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Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.

General John Sedgwick, just before he was killed by enemy fire at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, 1864.

14 Dinner Plate Qianlong period circa 1745 European Market Diameter: 9 inches; 23cm A Chinese export porcelain dinner plate, decorated in bright famille rose enamels with a European subject scene of musicians, the rim with a colourful rococo border.

The print source for this scene has recently been discovered. It is a detail from a set of four gouaches by Johann Esaias Nilson (1721-1788) for The Seasons, this one being Autumn. They were published about 1750 and engraved by Johann Philip Koch (1716-1796). Two others from this series, Spring and Summer are also found on Chinese export art, in modified form. The unusual rococo border decoration is also derived from the rococo framing in these prints.

References: Hervouët & Bruneau 1986, p188, No 8.15 a plate;

detail of Autumn by Johann Esaias Nilson, circa 1750 (Schuster 468)

Howard 1994, p88, No 75, a plate; Veiga 1989, p167, a plate; Sargent 2014, p226, No82, three examples in the Conde Collection.

Chinese painted enamel on copper snuff box lid, 18th century (the lady with the parasol has been omitted)

detail of Summer by Johann Esaias Nilson, circa 1750 (Schuster 467)

Have you heard? It’s in the stars Next July, we collide with Mars.

Cole Porter detail of Chinese dinner plate, painted in purple enamel, illustrated in Hervouët & Bruneau 1986, No 7.82

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detail of Spring by Johann Esaias Nilson, circa 1750 (Schuster 466)

15 Punchbowl Qianlong period circa 1785 English Market Diameter: 15 inches; 38cm A rare Chinese export porcelain marine subject punchbowl painted en grisaille with a scene showing the Battle of the Saintes on one side, the other with two seated figures staring aggressively at each other.

This finely painted bowl is one of a small group of such bowls that were made to celebrate a significant naval battle. The first order of these punchbowls would appear to be a small number directly for the English market, these having this satirical image of the two figures. Others have a different scene on the reverse, which shows a group of figures and a coastal scene, rather roughly painted and derived from a Vernet engraving of Caudebec (see details illustrated here).

The maritime scene is taken from a 1783 engraving by Francis Chesham (1749-1806) and John Peltro (1760-1808), Published: Sayer & Bennett (Robert Sayer and John Bennett who traded as Sayer & Bennett between 1774-84). This engraving is after a painting, one of a pair, by Robert Dodd (1748-1815), a version of which sold at Christie’s South Kensington, 24 November 2010. The ship right of centre has been identified as the St Albans, a 64-gun ship commanded by Captain Charles Inglis, whose brother was a Director of the East India Company and may have been instrumental in the ordering of these bowls. A plate with an image of just this ship was in the collection of Peter H B Frelinghuysen, sold Christie’s New York, 24 January 2012, lot 36. That collection also had a pair of these bowls, one with an inscription: ‘Breaking of the Line on the ever Memorable 12th of April’.

The satirical scene is after an engraving Politeness which is known in several versions and is attributed to James Gillray (1756-1815) although this version is signed ‘JN fecit et Invt 1779’ for John Nixon.

The Battle of the Saintes was an important naval battle in the Caribbean, near the islands of Les Saintes, between the British and the French that took place 9-12 April 1782. The British fleet under Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney (1718-92) defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.

Rodney is credited with introducing the tactic of ‘breaking the line’ which defeated the French fleet on the third day.

This was a significant event in the American Revolutionary War following the Siege of Yorktown the previous September, 1781, when Cornwallis has been defeated by the American forces (although recent reports that this had involved taking over the airports are not thought to be accurate).

The battle disrupted the French and Spanish plan to capture Jamaica and reasserted British dominance at sea at a crucial time when they were negotiating with the American Colonies following the Revolution.

Admiral Rodney accepted the surrender of De Grasse and took him to London as a prisoner to present to the King in person. Such a high profile humiliation is echoed here in the use of this satirical image. Rodney was created a peer in June 1782.

References: Hervouët & Bruneau (1986) p49, No 2.38 a bowl, later sold Sotheby’s Monte Carlo, June 1987; Godden 1979, p87, No 12, a bowl having an inscription: ‘The Gift of a Caommander of an Indiaman, a small but grateful Testimony of Respect to Lord Rodney’s Merit and Services’; the Victoria & Abert Museum has a bowl with the French scene (C.181951) and another with just the centre right ship, the St Albans, (C.19-1951); The Royal Maritime Museum at Greenwich has an example with this Gillray scene (No AAA4358) and another with the arms of Sir Charles Douglas Bt (d.1789), Rodney's Captain of the Fleet (No AAA4357); Howard 1977 The Sailing Ship on Porcelain Catalogue of the Ellis Memorial Antiques Show, Boston, fig 10 and pp49-52.

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detail of another scene found on some other versions of this bowl

print by Joseph Vernet, Seconde Vue des Environs de Caudebec en Normandie

detail of the reverse of the bowl in this catalogue

detail of the reverse of the bowl in this catalogue, signed JN for John Nixon but attributed also to James Gillray.

The stout figure on the left is John Bull, holding a pint of beer and with his dog, Mr Crus(ty), he says: “You be D_m’d”. On the right is a thin frenchman in fine clothes and stockings, holding a bowl of ‘meagre soup’ with a small greyhound under his chair, he says: “Vous etes une Bete”.

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their Star Spangled Banner waved defiant.”

US Presidential Speech, 4th July 2019

16 Dinner Plate Qianlong period circa 1755-60 Dutch or English Market Diameter: 9 inches; 23cm A Chinese export porcelain plate painted in underglaze blue with a central image of figures by water, a cell diaper border at the rim.

This scene had originally been known as The Wreck of the Grosvenor because it seemed to depict a famous incident when the Grosvenor, returning from India to London was lost off the coast of South Africa in 1782. Of the 123 survivors who were cast ashore only 18 made it to Cape Town.

The porcelain clearly dates to earlier than this, the design being known in blue and white from about 1740 onwards. A number of sets must have been made over a period, as the details and quality of reproduction varies.

Another theory, which seemed persuasive (to this author among others) was that the relative crudeness of the drawing showed a Chinese misinterpretation of another European composition and that this was a very rough rendering of an earlier design, Thetis Dipping Achilles in the River Styx, from a 1719 engraving by Edmé (or Etienne) Jeaurat after a painting by Nicolas Vleughels. That print is also known painted in high quality grisaille on a large charger in the British Museum and on a plate with Cohen & Cohen (2014B).

However a recent discovery shows that this composition is actually taken from a part of a colour print

by Johannes Teyler (1648-c.1709) from his Opus Typochromaticum, depicting The Fall of Phaethon. Two other prints from this Opus are known on Chinese export porcelain.

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The Fall of Phaethon Print, circa 1688-98, published by Johannes Teyler (1648c.1709) from his Opus Typochromaticum.

(Rijksmuseum RP-P-1939-42)

Phaethon, the son of the Sun God Helios, had begged his father to prove his paternity to his friends, so Helios had sworn an oath on the River Styx to grant any wish that the youth wanted. Phaethon chose to ride the famous sun chariot and despite his father’s warning that the steeds were too strong for him, the young man took the reins. His lack of control soon led to disasters when he flew too low and scorched the earth.

The part of the Teyler print here shows a group of River Gods in distress, who had petitioned Zeus to stop Pheaton’s uncontrolled Chariot ride because it had caused their rivers to dry up. When Zeus kills Phaethon with a thunderbolt he falls into the River Eridanus where he is drowned.

There is a similarity to the composition of the Jeaurat engraving especially as they both feature several River Gods. However the dark haired face in the upper right, which had been thought to be Vulcan is in fact a collapsed river god.

References: Hervouët et Bruneau 1986, p 206, No 9.42 a saucer from the Groninger Museum; Sapage 1992, Cat 35, a pair of teabowls and saucers; Victoria & Albert Museum, another plate, C.368-1921; Cohen & Cohen 2002, p12, an earlier lotus-form dish with this scene; Cohen & Cohen 2014B, p85, No 48, a small blue and white plate with this pattern and p86, a dinner plate with the Jeaurat print of Achilles being Dipped in the River Styx, painted en grisaille.

detail

17 Pair of Chargers Qianlong period circa 1740-43 English Market Diameter: 121⁄2 inches; 32cm

His ancestral estates at Okeover, first recorded in the possession of Ormas Acover in 1100, are still in the family having passed through cousins. Much of this service was sold in 1975 by Sir Ian Walker-Okeover Bt. References: Howard 1974, frontispiece and p398; Howard 1994, p80, No 63; Howard & Ayers 1978, p413-5; Howard 1997, p57, including illustration of the original design; Gordon

A pair of Chinese export porcelain armorial chargers very ornately decorated in rich famille rose enamels in rococo style, the central coat of arms surrounded by elaborate gilt scroll and shell framing and rouge de fer and white mantling, with two hippocampi above a waterfall, all within a scalloped frame, the rim borders having sprays of European flowers and four panels with monograms and crests.

This is the most famous of all the Chinese Export Armorial services. Examples of dinner plates and soup plates are found in museums and important private collections around the world but larger pieces such as the chargers offered here are extremely rare.

The whole design is almost overpowering and has not a trace of Chinese influence. The original artwork is believed to have been painted by Arthur Devis Sr. (1711-87) and still survives.

The arms are for Leake Okeover Esq of Okeover near Ashbourn, Derbyshire. Properly they are, on the dexter half, clockwise from top left: Okeover quartering Byrmingham, Pettus and Leake impaling, on the sinister half, Nichol. The crest above the arms is an oak tree on a green mound and the rim crest is a dragon on a ducal coronet, while the monogram is LMO. The service was ordered by Leake Okeover in about 1738 and two deliveries were made: in 1740 (70 plates and 30 dishes) by Ralph Congreve, costing £99 11s 10d; and in 1743 from Joseph Congreve, commander of the ship Prislowe, a further 50 plates and four large dishes.

The cost of roughly £1 per piece was very high and much more than usual for armorial services, reflecting the high detail and craftsmanship. In armorial porcelain this service has never been equalled for quality. Only plates and large dishes are known.

Leake Okeover was the son of Thomas Okeover and Catherine Leake, sole heir of William Leake of Wymeswold, serjeant-at-law. He married in 1730, Mary, daughter of John Nichol but died without heir in 1765, a year after his wife. He moved to the Tudor House at Okeover after his marriage and in 1747 built an extensive new house there. He was an extravagant man, at one point having to hide from his creditors in France under the pseudonym Mr Scrimpshaw.

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1979, p33, No13; examples can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The British Museum; The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem and the New Orleans Museum of Fine Art.

book plate for Leake Okeover

Leake Okeover (1702-1765)

Okeover Hall 1686 (detail)

Leake Okeover and Mary Nichol in profile by Joseph Wilton, 1766

18 Charger Qianlong period circa 1743 English Market Diameter: 121⁄2 inches; 32cm en suite with the previous item.

19 Milk Jug & Cover Yongzheng period circa 1732-3 Dutch Market Height: 51⁄2 inches; 14cm An extremely rare milk jug and cover with two coats of arms accollée with a crest of a man holding a pike over his shoulder and a tablature below with the names CORNELIS SCHIPPERS and JUDITH BARTHOLOMEUSSEN, reserved on a dense iron red and gold Y-diaper, with side panels of a device incorporating clasped arms and a heart, the rim with a gilt floral band and the cover with a floral rosette around the knop.

Kroes 2007 identifies three designs with these arms, No 62 & No 81 are a group of dishes, with a rim border of famille rose floral reserves on a pink diaper, with slight differences in the cavetto decoration, and No 81 having tarnished silver enamel instead of the blue. Jörg suggests the silver version was done first and then altered because of the tarnishing - something found on a number of armorial services of this period.

Kroes describes these as “the most magnificent armorial porcelain made for the Dutch Market” (p172).

For the third design, No 64, Kroes includes a black and white illustration of a teacaddy and states that it is then “the only known piece of a tea service” and its colouring is undetermined. This jug is therefore the second piece of this teaservice recorded and its colouring is evident.

The dishes have the name Judick written as does this jug (the H and the K are very similar). The teacaddy had lost the blue enamel and lettering altogether. The Rijksmuseum also has a mother-of-pearl gaming counter with the correct lettering with an H and with ‘BARTHOLOMUSSEN’ lacking an ‘E’. That counter also has rim panels of the clasped arms that are found on this jug in the side panels. A cup and saucer are listed in the Rijksmuseum catalogue but not illustrated.

Additionally Kroes includes two monogrammed porcelains with CS for Schippers (Nos 65 & 66) and No 67 is a saucer with an identical design including the hands and heart on the rim but with different crest and monogrammes for Jan van Ens and Johanna Bochoute.

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detail of Chinese mother-of-pearl gaming counter with the same arms (image digitally enhanced here to show up the detail more clearly) (Rijksmuseum AK-RAK-2008-1)

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

Jonathan Swift Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.

Jeremy Bentham

1734 entry in VOC records relating to Cornelis Schippers

Cornelis Schippers was employed by the VOC as a medical master and sailed to the Far East at least six times between 1723 and 1734. His first voyage was to Ceylon on the ship Borssele as 2nd Medical Master but from 1725 he was promoted to Senior Medical Master going to Batavia on the ship ’s Heer Arendskerke, returning on the Wolphaartsdijk. He was in Batavia again in 1729 and 1731. He sailed from Amsterdam on the Nieuwvliet on 18 December 1732 and made it to Canton, where it is supposed he ordered his armorial porcelains. The second mate on that journey was Daniel Tuineman who also ordered a fine teaservice (see Cohen & Cohen 2014B No 59).

Cornelis was married first to Maria Huyskens (one daughter) but she must have died and he remarried before 1733 to Judith Bartholomussen.

His final voyage left Amsterdam in 1735 on the Westkapelle arriving in Batavia on 10 June 1736. He died on 11 February 1737, probably on board the Nieuwvliet, which left 26th October 1736 and arrived in Amsterdam, 30 June 1737, where he is listed as deceased. The records show he must have spent at least 2,500 days at sea between 1723 and 1737.

References: Kroes 2007, Cat 62 , 64, 65, 66 & 81; Williamson 1970, pl XXXVIII, a dish with these arms.

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there's hardly a difference.

Harry S Truman

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In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Confucius

20 Punchbowl Qianlong period circa 1787-88 American Market Diameter: 14 inches; 35.5cm A Chinese export porcelain punchbowl painted to the exterior with scenes of the Hongs at Canton in famille rose enamels, showing the flags of Denmark, the Philippines, France, America, Sweden, Britain and The Netherlands - and one ‘ghost’ flag (overpainted) between the British and Dutch flags.

This hong bowl shows the waterfront buildings in Canton, where the Western offices and factories were located. It was a small area about the size of Buckingham Palace, where westerners were confined to their trade.

The earliest bowl with these Hongs dates from 1765 and is in puce enamels having a panel on the other side of Copenhagen from a print of 1764. The changes in the architecture can be plotted from a careful study of these bowls and from paintings which were also popular at the time (see Paul A Van Dyke & Maria Kar-wing Mok 2016, Images of the Canton Factories 17601822, Reading History in Art).

The panelled versions date from about 1775 and later ones from about 1782 have a continuous scene all round the bowl.

From the late 1780s the US flag is found on some bowls after the first US ship The Empress of China had been to Canton in 1783 and a US base was set up a few years later.

The two bowls with US flags illustrated in Cohen & Cohen 2017 (pp 130-137) are from the late 1780s when the US was trading in Canton and they have the US flag in different positions.

This bowl would appear to have been made at the precise moment when the US traders moved their principal office from one site to the next. It must have been ordered by an American in Canton at that time, who would have demanded the change - and indeed on this bowl the US flag in its brand new position is painted larger than the rest!

Also unusual on this bowl is the Philippine flag for The Real Compañia de Filipinas (Royal Philippine Company) that was founded in Madrid in March 1785 under the patronage of Charles III of Spain. This flag was first used in 1787.

References: Sargent 2012, No 241, an identical (apart from the ghost flag) bowl in the Peabody Essex Museum; another example is in Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (see Patricia Ferguson, Canton Revisited: A Hong Bowl at Nostell Priory, Apollo Supplement Historic Houses and Collections, (April 2009) 18-23); two bowls in the Winterthur Museum, No 1961.1427 is similar but has the US flag between the English and Dutch as on the grisaille bowls and No 2005.0037, similar to this example; a similar bowl is in the Reeves collection, Washington and Lee University, gift of HF Lenfest; Cohen & Cohen 2017, pp130-7.

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The only fence against the world, is a thorough knowledge of it, into which a young gentleman should be enter’d by degrees, as he can bear it; and the earlier the better.

John Locke (1632-1704) Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

General George S. Patton

detail of a grisaille painted bowl with the US flag flying clearly between the British and Dutch hongs

detail of this bowl, showing the ‘ghost’ flag and pole, painted over.

This position corresponds to the first US offices in Canton.

Danish flag

Phillipines flag

‘free’ French flag

USA flag

Swedish flag

British flag

‘ghost’ flag

Dutch flag

21 Figure Group Qianlong period circa 1750-55 Dutch Market Height 93/4 inches; 25 cm Provenance: Collection of Nelson & Happy Rockefeller; Espirito Santo Collection, Lisbon A rare Chinese export porcelain figure group of a standing Dutch couple, the man with splayed feet in preparation for dancing, both decorated in bright famille rose enamels, on a rectangular base.

This is a well known example of such a figure group, being illustrated in Michel Beurdeley’s 1962 book Porcelain of the East India Companies. This group is one of the oddest, rarest and most famous types in Chinese Export Porcelain. They do not fit with most other such figures made for export and their market is unclear.

Though it would seem that these are made for the Dutch Market (and some were clearly exported to Europe) they may also have been made for the entertainment of the Chinese.

Almost certainly they were made as matching pairs: the first, as here, shows the couple preparing to dance with the man's feet parted and his arms guiding the woman’s shoulder; the second group shows them whirling in the middle of the dance.

The twirling pose is very likely to have been influenced by a model of a dancing couple that was first made for the Meissen factory and then copied by the Chinese as well as by Bow, Chelsea and Derby. First modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein in 1735 for Meissen it was reworked by Johan Joachim Kändler and listed in his Taxa of 1743 as "Harlequin and a maiden

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standing couple, circa 1740 (Golden Gate collection, Cohen & Cohen 2018)

doing a Polish dance, possibly a Mazurka". There are very few examples of that group known but when the wreck of the VOC ship Geldermalsen was salvaged in 1985 five damaged examples were recovered, which had lost their enamels due to the corrosion of salt water, and enabled dating to 1752.

This group is in a naïve style and would have amused the Chinese who were known to find European activities very curious.

A most interesting aspect of these groups is the combination of European and Chinese influences: the costumes are in typical eighteenth century European fashion, but decorated with prunus and other flowers in Chinese style. The plinth provides another clue that indicates these groups might have been popular with the Chinese market and not made purely for export, as this style is sometimes found on pieces made for the domestic market.

Perhaps they were "curiousities for those interested in the physiognomy, costumes and social habits of Westerners" as suggested by Sargent (1991). There exist books with illustrations of European figures that were made for the Chinese Court and the Emperor Qianlong encouraged the use of European scenes and figures on certain Imperial items.

References: Beurdeley 1962, this example, p21, colour plate V and Cat 2, p149; Du Boulay 1963, p82, No 116, an example; Beurdeley & Raindre 1987, fig 284, an example but the picture appears reversed; Sargent 1991, p220, cat 106 an example of the standing couple; p222, cat 107, the dancing couple; Cohen & Cohen 2002, p44, cat 30, an example of the earlier Tyrolean Dancers modeled after Eberlein, Kändler; C&C 2006, p26, a standing couple and p28, a dancing couple; C&C 2008, p40, a pair of couples fully matched; p42, another dancing couple; C&C 2012, p48, the Tyrolean group with illustrations of a range of models; C&C 2018, No 55, the earliest group.

Polish dancers, circa 1752 (Cohen & Cohen 2012)

pair of figure groups of dancers (Cohen & Cohen 2008)

22 Pair of Figural Candlesticks Qianlong period circa 1770-80 European Market Height: 91/2 inches; 24cm A pair of Chinese porcelain candlesticks modelled as caparisoned elephants with candlesticks on their backs, decorated in famille rose enamels This shape of candlestick is known from the Ming period and was copied in the Kangxi period, but usually in metalwork, either bronze or cloisonné.

This rare pair is an early example of this type in porcelain and is of very good quality. The form was later reproduced in the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, usually smaller, brighter, and relatively crude, catering for the growing interest in Indian and pan-Asian style in the European markets of the nineteenth century.

Elephants in China In the Neolithic period four thousand years ago, elephants were found right across China, even in the area around what is now Beijing, but by the Shang period they had disappeared north of the Yangtze River.

Recent analysis of the molars and tusks, correlated with depictions on early bronzes, has suggested that the Chinese elephants of Northern China in the Shang and Zhou periods were from a totally different extinct genus Palaeoloxodon, which had straight tusks and a double lipped trunk, though this remains a controversial conclusion. Other species more closely related to modern elephants were found in the south and west.

In the Southern Han elephants were maintained for war, with small towers on their back but this ceased in the Song dynasty.

By the Ming period elephants were scarce in China, though in the twentieth century a small population of about 200 in Hunan Province in southwest China was rediscovered and is now protected in Xishuangbanna Reserve.

These Chinese animals are a subspecies of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus), one of three subspecies of this type.

Elephant taxonomy has recently been reorganised using genetic analysis, and there are now four recognised species:

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Rare examples of the form are also known in painted enamel on copper and mixed media, sometimes with clocks mounted instead of the candlesticks.

The white elephant is a symbol of mental strength and purity in Buddhism, an image further enhanced by its carrying a light on its back. In the Qing dynasty real elephants with vases on their backs were included in processions to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday.

References: Sargent 1991, p196, a pair of similar type to this and pp240–245, other examples of elephant models; Carneiro 1990, p108, a pair of this type; Cohen & Motley 2008, p193, a single example in the James E Sowell collection.

the Asian, the Bornean Pygmy, and two in Africa, the Savannah and the Forest Elephants.

The population decline was described favourably

by Mencius (372-289 BCE), who wrote that ‘The Duke of Zhou drove the tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses and elephants far away and the world was greatly delighted’. In reality, their decline was from three major pressures: biological factors such as loss of suitable habitat and a slow reproductive rate; competition with an increasing agrarian culture in China that regarded elephants as pests; and their being a valuable resource.

Zichan, a Zhou statesman, wrote in 548 BCE: ‘Elephants have tusks that are the cause of their deaths.’ Their ivory was much prized, though some were used as beasts of burden in agriculture and they were significant as a military asset up to the Ming period. Their trunks were also eaten as a delicacy, with one Tang writer commenting that they were “fatty and crisp… well suited to being roasted.”

In 1547, during the Jiajing reign of the Ming, the writer Li Wenfeng described the persecution of elephants that had been attacking local crops in the Dalian Mountain area.

The animals were herded together into a prepared wooden compound and ‘arrows were shot and spears were hurled...Then the villagers set fire to the area.’

In Qing China there were no known native elephants; those that were used domestically were almost always from outside China and controlled by foreigners, usually Indians. Hence some porcelain examples include foreigners. The Chinese view of elephants had always been associated with foreign cultures, however, because of the importance of the elephant in Buddhism; the word ‘elephant' occurs nearly 25,000 times in the Buddhist cannon, and the miraculous pregnancy that led to the birth of the historical Buddha involved a white elephant coming out of the sky and entering into his mother's left side.

Because of their physical strength, elephants symbolise mental strength and determination: a disciple begins as a grey elephant, but as he progressed towards spiritual enlightenment the elephant turns white. They are also the ‘support’ of Buddhism, often shown carrying vases or pagodas. Buddhist depictions of elephants often have shell ears and an exaggeratedly wrinkled skin, as can be seen in many of the porcelain representations.

Xie Zhaozhe, writing in the late Ming, commented on them in his Fivefold Miscellany (1608): ‘Although these beasts are bulky and awkward in nature and do not have an elegant shape, they nonetheless possess uncanny intelligence.

Thus it is that that many humans are not the equals of animals.’ Besides with humans, elephants are the only species that produces tears when unhappy.

Elephants were also rare and popular in Europe; the naturalist René de Réaumur sent one to Paris in 1755, but his ship was captured by the English and the elephant, expecting to arrive in Paris, disembarked instead in Portsmouth, where it promptly died (of disappointment?). It was stuffed and later returned to the French, finally arriving in Paris somewhat moth-eaten. Buffon wrote in his Natural History (1749–1789) that the elephant was powerful, courageous, prudent, moderate even in the strongest passions, and constant in love; it remembers favours as well as injuries and is modest, never mating in front of witnesses.

23 Gouache Chinese, early 19th century Dimensions: 14 x 93/4 inches; 36 x 25cm (without frame) A rare and charming gouache of two elephants, one white and one dark grey.

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One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas.

How he got into my pyjamas I’ll never know.

Groucho Marx

The problem with nationalism is it starts with folk dancing and ends with barbed wire Simon Winder author of Germania (2010) You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist.

Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word.

US President, Texas Rally, 23 Oct 2018 I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today, barbed wire used in the right way can be a beautiful sight.

US President, Montana Rally, 3 Nov 2018

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24 Pair of Maiden Candlesticks Qianlong period circa 1760 European Market Height: 14½ inches; 37cm A pair of famille rose porcelain candleholders modelled as standing maidens, each perched on a dragon, the backs flattened and with apertures for wall mounting.

This form is a rare adaptation of the usual type, both as a wall pocket and also because of the inclusion of the dragons, though the heads of these also resemble the qilin heads in some export models.

The dragon is a male symbol (yang), connected to the east and the light and adopted as a symbol of imperial authority. Dragons are rare in export porcelain figures, usually appearing as attachments to other objects, such as handles on vases. The first dragon rose out of the sea, appearing before the sage Fu Xi and filling a great hole in the sky made by another monster; thus a dragon controls the weather and the seasons.

References: Cohen & Cohen 2018, p100 a similar pair; Godden 1979, p242, No 167, a similar pair illustrated.

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25 Pair of Bird Groups Qianlong period circa 1770 English or European Market Height: 61⁄2 inches; 16.5cm A fine pair of Chinese porcelain bird groups on flattened bases, each with pair of finches on branches with elaborately modelled fruit and flowers, all painted in bright famille rose enamels.

This pair is well modelled with fine detail and colouring. No others like this are recorded though a few examples of larger single passerines on stumps are known.

Bird groups of this type are known in English porcelain especially from Bow and Chelsea.

The original species shown here is somewhat stylised though it appears to be based on the Red Munia, Red Avadavat or Strawberry Finch (Amandava amandava, L 1758) which is found now in parts of Western China.

It has variable colouring though is often a brighter red and is one of the few Chinese passerines with a red beak.

References: Cohen & Motley 2008, p286, a pair of sparrows on stumps with similar colouring, from the James E Sowell collection.

When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.

Lin Yutang (1895-1976)

If we are going to be making moral judgments about people in public office, we will have nobody in public office.

Rudy Giuliani on Cuomo Prime Time, 18 April 2019 Red Munia, Red Avadavat or Strawberry Finch (Amandava amandava, L 1758)

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26 Garniture Qianlong period circa 1740 Dutch Market Height: 111⁄4 inches; 29cm Provenance: collection of Leo and Doris Hodroff A Chinese export porcelain fiver piece garniture of three bottle vases and two beakers vases, each painted in famille rose enamels with a parrot on a swing.

This is a fine example of this rare design traditionally attributed to the Pronk workshop, though it is probably not by Carnelis Pronk himself.

The VOC set up a venture in the 1730s to make very high quality porcelains in China to specific designs produced in the West but in the Chinese style.

They employed Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk to make designs for these and he produced four sets of drawings over about three and half years that were sent out to Batavia. From there the designs were taken to Canton and manufacture was commissioned by Chinese agents.

The designs were elaborate and used bright enamel colouring.

Fig. 1

Fig. 6

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Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 7

Eventually these proved too expensive and the venture was abandoned in about 1740, though some of the designs were revived in the later 18th century, including the Parasol design for which an original drawing survives - and a ‘flowers and moth’ design recombining details from prints by Marie Sybilla Merian - which had also been used for various other details in the Pronk designs.

What remains today is a rare and fascinating range of porcelains, with distinctive colouring and of a very high quality. Thus they have an appeal to serious collectors of Chinese porcelain.

As the problems had developed with the costs of manufacture it seems likely that the Dutch agents in Batavia tried to simplifiy the designs and to broaden the range of designs. One pattern that was introduced was a Parrot and Spaniel (Fig. 8), taken from a Meissen service of about 1732 using a chinoiserie drawing by Petrus Schenk (Fig. 4). Parrots were a quick short hand for the exoticism of the Far East and also popular as pets and so a few different examples appear on designs in the Pronk workshop at this time.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 8

Several links suggest that this garniture is from the small group made in this distinctive workshop.

These bottle shapes are less common and similar garnitures are found with the Doctor’s Visit, an established Pronk design, both in blue and white and famille rose (Fig. 3).

The colouring of the parrots closely follows that of the Meissen/Schenk design, also found on a Chinese famille rose example (Fig. 5), with white face, blue head, yellow forewings and pink body.

The Schenk drawing has not been found but it is possible that he produced the designs for both of these parrots as they share the same elements: cherries, a chain and a small tray attached to the perch..

A later design known as the ‘spaniel’, rather crudely drawn, has both of these parrots on border panels (Fig. 7) and recycles both of these designs.

One bottle vase is also known with this design on a celadon ground (Fig. 1), which is known on a pair of Archer vases (another Pronk design) but otherwise very rare.

All of which indicates that these designs are all contemporary and interconnected in their creation and with the Pronk workshop production.

In the Shan Hai Jing or Classic of the Mountains and Seas from the period of the western Han (202 BC220 AD), the yingmu (parrot) is described thus: ‘The parrot is a happy bird...

Inside a cage, happy on its own, A secluded branch becomes its throne.’

References: Williamson 1970, plate XLII, a famille rose teabowl and saucer with this design; Howard 1994, p240, No 284, a blue and white five piece garniture with the Pronk design ,The Doctors’s Visit which has the same unusual shapes as here;

Jörg1980, p79, a famille rose Doctors’s Visit bottle like these, which is also on the cover.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

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Research Update

C&C 2018 No 52 Teapot & Cover Qianlong period circa 1770 European possibly Dutch Market Length: 7½ inches; 19cm A Chinese export porcelain teapot and cover, decorated in famille rose with two ships in a harbour, the shoulder with a simple cell border.

This fairly naively painted teaservice would appear to be loosely derived from a print showing a specific location, though the image is somewhat reduced.

The print is from La Galerie Agreable du Monde, (Vol 1, Africa) published in 1725 by Pieter van der Aa. However the layout is reversed which suggests that it might be taken from a re-engraved version of this image. The general layout and a number of details are closely matched (see below left).

This shows a view of the harbour of Dabhol as seen from the sea. The city is situated on the Vashishti river, north of Goa in India, on the Malabar Coast.

References: Hervouët & Bruneau 1986, p342, No 15.1, a print reversed for comparison

teapot stand with this design.

print in correct orientation

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Research Update

C&C 2004 No 34 Pair of Soup plates Qianlong period circa 1750 Diameter: 9 inches; 23cm A rare pair of Chinese export porcelain soup plates with a central panel of a reclining lady with a recumbent lion, a young boy and a town in the distance.

The source print for this has recently been found.

It is taken from a 1716 engraving by Edmé (or Etienne) Jeaurat after Nicolas Vleughels, with a verse signed NB (possibly for Nicolas Bonnart). It is entitled La Terre and is from a series of the Four Elements.

Etienne and Edmé Jeaurat were both sons of the engraver Nicolas Jeaurat. Edmé was an engraver, taught by Bernard Picart in Amsterdam and Etienne was apprenticed to Nicolas Vleughels and was mainly a painter of genre scenes. Edmé engraved a number of Vleughels works but as his engravings are only signed E Jeaurat it is possible that some were done by Etienne also.

Plates are known with this design and also a teaservice, made about 1750. detail of dinner plate, (image, Polly Latham)

References: Hervouët & Bruneau 1986, No 13.21.

La Terre, from the Fours Seasons, engraved 1716 by E Jeaurat after N Vleughels (Author’s collection)

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Objects acquired from Cohen & Cohen are now in the following museum collections: British Museum, London Bristol Museum Jeffrye Museum, London Foundling Hospital Museum, London Groniger Museum, Groeningen East India Company Museum Lorient Adrien-Dubouché National Porcelain Museum, Limoges Sèvres Ceramics Museum Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Mass.

Kenton Foundation, California New Orleans Museum Of Art Virginia Museum Of Art, Richmond Va Minneapolis Museum Winterthur Museum Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach Fl Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Tea Museum, Hong Kong Hong Kong Maritime Museum Nanchang University Museum The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina The Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore The Musée Guimet, Paris The Metropolitan Museum, New York Muzeum Żup Krakowskich Wieliczka

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ANTUNES, Mary ESSL (1999) Porcelanas e Vidros, Lisbon: Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva.

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BUTLER, Sir Michael et al., (1990) Seventeenth Century Porcelain from the Butler Collection CARNIERO, Jose Manuel Martins, The Porcelain Garden, Pub: Palaciao National da Pena CASSIDY_GEIGER, M. (2007) Fragile Diplomacy, Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca 1710-63, Yale University Press.

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